


Remember Kindergarten?

by NiniAtTheYAC



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: F/M, Friedship, Friends to Lovers, Growing Up, I'm gonna live to regret taking this on, The whole gang will eventually be here, also the rating may change eventually, from the start
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:20:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22340206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NiniAtTheYAC/pseuds/NiniAtTheYAC
Summary: In kindergarten Miss. Rain pairs Richard Bowen and Nina Salazar-Roberts as each other's classroom buddies and the rest is history.This starts in Kindergarten and follows Ricky and Nini as they grow up. Rating may change with later chapters.
Relationships: Ricky Bowen & Nini Salazar-Roberts
Comments: 4
Kudos: 52





	1. Kindergarten

**Author's Note:**

> The whole thing with Ricky and Nini calling each other 'buddy' in the show and being weird about it got me thinking, and now I'm gonna spend way too much time writing about their lives. This first chapter is kind of short jumping-off point for the story, but the rest of the story will be told in more detail. Enjoy!

Miss.Rain assigned each of the students in her kindergarten class a buddy. She told the parents and kids that they were randomly assigned pair, which … wasn't entirely true. The buddies were based on the behavior and personalities that Miss. Rain saw in the kids during the first week of class. For the most part, she paired the loudest kids with the quietest, the best listeners with the worst, the most outgoing with most shy, which is how Nina Salazar-Roberts and Richard Bowen ended up spending the year paired together as "buddies”. 

They sat together in class and at lunch. They were expected to share craft supplies from glue sticks (which Richard always made a mess of) to scissors (which made Nina nervous because they were pointy). Miss. Rain had to admit that they were one of the best-matched buddy pairs she'd ever had in class. Nina was a very particular kid, if things didn't go just right then she usually ended up crying and Richard, although he tended to be a tornado of energy, was always patient with her tears and surprised every adult with his ability to understand and calm her down. And while Richard struggled with one of the world's worst lisp, Nina rarely had trouble understanding him. 

One day Miss. Rain was trying to talk to him and struggling so Nina stepped in to translate, once she'd sorted everything out for him, Richard turned to his friend, “Thinks Nini,” he said. “Nin-a,” Miss. Rain corrected him. “There’s an ‘a’ at the end of her name.”

Richard blushed bright red, “I'd knows but t’s hawrd for me to-” he started to explain. But Nini, always knowing was Richard was trying to say, cut him off. “Actually, he can call me Nini, I like it better anyway.” To say that Miss. Rain was surprised by Nina’s flexibility in this situation would be an understatement. Here was a child who cried when she got peanut butter on her fingers because it was "too sticky", but when it came to Richard Bowen she would willingly be called the wrong name to make him feel better. Richard beamed at his friend. 

At parent-teacher conferences Miss. Rain told Nini’s (because now that’s what she insisted that everyone called her) moms about their friendship. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it to be completely honest,” She said to Carol and Dana. “In Kindergarten, most kids make a new best friend every week, and it’s mostly girls on one side, boys on the other, but Nini and Richard have been pretty inseparable all year.” 

“Well, we’ve met him and his parents in the pick-up loop a few times, but Nina hardly ever stops talking about him. I mean it- all of her Ken dolls are named Richard.” Carol says, laughing. Dana nods along with her wife and interjects, “And she really doesn’t seem like she’s about to let this Nini thing go. She made us buy an ‘I’ to replace the ‘A’ in her name that hangs above her bed!” 

“Well, his parents are my next meeting if you want to chat with them for a bit, I think that encouraging this friendship could be really beneficial for both of your kids,” Miss. Rain said as they all stood at the end of their visit. 

In the hall, the Bowen and Salazar-Roberts parents finally connected the dots- they were practically neighbors, just across the street and three houses down, and in an instant, Nini and Richard’s parents' lives would never be the same.


	2. Chapter 2

One hot day in mid-June, Nini and Richard are playing when she sees a stray cat in the backyard. The two of them agree that they need a grownups help so they run into the house and drag Mama C out to catch it, and even though the cat is successfully caught, neither Nini’s moms nor Richard’s parents will let them keep it. They say he has to be taken to the rescue shelter. 

Richard is sad, but he understands, and he likes dogs better anyway. Nini, on the other hand, had named the cat before it was even caught. “Sandy, like the rescue dog from Annie!” she says to anyone who will listen. Richard barely knows what she’s talking about, but he understands that she is upset and that’s enough for him. “What if we have a lemonade stand to raise money for the rescue shelter?” He suggests to Nini while they sit on the porch eating popsicles that Mama D had given them in a feeble attempt to distract Nini while Mike Bowen drove the stray to the shelter. 

“If we raise money for the rescue shelter then Sandy would have a good life there and be taken care of for sure!” Nini says, completely in tune with her best friend, as per usual. “Richard, you’re a genius!” He beams, happy to have made her feel better. “Trade?” He asks, offering his half-eaten Grape popsicle for her half-eaten Orange one. Nini smiles and trades him just like always. 

The next day the two of them are set up, Nini makes posters with kitties and puppies on them so that people will know what the lemonade is raising money for, and to the astonishment of all of their parents, the two of them actually do quite well. They are an undeniably perfect pair. Whenever Richard gets bored, Nini suggests that he walk up and down the street with their fliers so that people will know about the stand. Nini is too shy to talk to most of the customers, but Richard thinks it’s fun to be allowed to talk to strangers. Between the two of them, the stand operates quite well and by late afternoon they’ve raised nearly twenty dollars.

Unfortunately, just before they have to go inside for the night, a few of the boys from the next street over come by on their skateboards, bicycles, and scooters. Nini freezes up immediately, some of the boys are their age but some of them are clearly older, and older kids could be scary sometimes. Richard isn’t phased by them, always friendly and charming, he stands up and waves to them as they come closer. “Hey guys!” he shouts, and Nini wishes he wouldn’t. “Any of you want to buy some lemonade?” Nini counts six of them from her spot, half-hidden behind Richard. Six boys at once are about five too many for her liking. 

They come over to the stand asking about why they’re selling lemonade, and how much, Richard answers all of their questions with a big smile on his face while he pours each of them a glass. “Why’s she so quiet?” One of the tallest ones asks, Nini feels herself blush. He’s clearly older than her and Richard, he isn’t even wearing a helmet. 

“Oh,” Richard says, finally starting to notice that something isn’t quite alright. He pulls Nini out from behind him to stand at his side. “Nini’s just shy is all.” The boys drink their lemonade smiling and laughing together. Richard laughs too and Nini looks at him angrily, until she sees in his face that he clearly doesn’t know why they're laughing. Nini knows that they are laughing at her. “Anyway, that’s two dollars and fifty cents for the five lemonades,” Richard says, cheerfully. The boys let down their act then, their ring leader speaks for them, “Yeah, we don’t have any money, but thanks for the suggestion.” 

“What? You have to pay. That’s not how it works!” he yells. They all laugh at Richard, whose eyes start to water with frustrated tears.

Nini feels anger rising in her, “Hey, it’s for the animals!” She shouts at them.

The boy leans over their stand, “So she speaks,” he teases. “Sorry, I don’t pay babies.” He says, reaching out to tug on one of her braids. Nini is pretty sure he actually pulls harder on her hair than he meant to because his pull whips her head down so hard and fast that she almost hits her head on the table. “Ow!” She cries, and for a moment the boy looks like he wants to say he’s sorry, but then all of his friends start to gasp and cheer and the look of regret goes away, replaced by a triumphant smile. “Dude!” “I can’t believe you just did that!” “The look on her face!” 

The boys start to gather their bikes and scooters to leave, but Richard can’t let them go without doing something, “Hey!” he says, horror flashes across Nini’s face, the last thing she wants is for him to get hurt because of her. “Don’t you guys know that good people don't ever hurt girls?”

The boy who pulled her hair laughed, “Yeah, and don’t you know that cool guys are never friends with girls?” With that, the boys ride away and Nini finally lets herself cry. Richard puts his arm around his best friend. He knows that she is more sad than hurt by the boys, but somehow that is almost worse. He always wants to be able to protect her, but protecting someone’s heart is so much harder than it seems. “M’okay,” she says after a minute. She sniffles and wipes her eyes. 

He turns to her and then realizes that the mean boy had really messed up her hair with his tug. “Aw, Nini. Here, let me fix your hairs.” She sits and Richard pulls off the elastic, runs his fingers through her hair to take out the messy braid, and then he begins to redo the braid, just like her Mama C had taught him after school one day when Nini had been upset about not being able to fix her hair in the middle of the school day. 

Nini can’t help but think about all of the sugar and lemon that is surely on his hands, she can feel his fingers sticking to her hair a bit, but she doesn't say anything because she still appreciates how much Richard cares about her. “Thanks, Ricky,” she says softly. 

His hands freeze. “Did you just call me Ricky?” He asks, laughing. Nini laughs too, “Yeah, I think I like it better. It takes too long to say Richard, plus that’s your grandpa’s name, you should get to have your own.”

Ricky thinks that Nini makes a fair point, but mostly he likes that it's a name she gave him. “Okay, you can call me Ricky, but nobody else,” he says, as he replaces the elastic at the end of her braid. She turns to him so that he can check his work. “It’s not quite as good as the other one, but I think I’m getting better,” he says, blushing a little. Nini smiles at him and nods. 

Just as Ricky is about to suggest that they clean up the lemonade stand and head inside her house to watch a movie, a boy comes flying down the street on a bicycle, Ricky remembers him because of his shockingly red hair, it’s one of the boys from earlier. He hadn’t said anything, but the boy hadn’t been laughing with his friends either. The boy reaches them, panting. Finally, Ricky stands up, “What do you want?” he asked. The red-haired boy shakes his head and takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry about earlier. My mom always says it costs nothing to be kind. I didn’t have any money earlier but I broke my piggy bank open so that I could help you guys.” 

He held out a huge bag with all kinds of coins and even a few dollar bills inside. Nini’s eyes lit up, “Are you sure?” she asks, peeking out from behind Ricky. 

“Yeah, we had a dog named Scooby that died last year, but I really like dogs.” Nini and Ricky look at each other for a moment in shock, then back to the boy in front of them. She stands, and puts her hand to him, “I’m Nini.” The boy puts down his bag of money on their table to shake her hand. “I’m Gary, but everybody calls me Big Red,” he introduces himself. Nini laughs a little at his funny name. Ricky holds out his hand to shake with Big Red too, “I’m Richard-” “But you can call him Ricky.” Nini interjected, earning herself an annoyed look from her best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The lemonade stand to raise money for an animal shelter was actually inspired by my own best friend and myself. When we were about eight, she and I wanted to adopt a cat from our local shelter and trade it back and forth between our houses every week, but our parents (obviously) weren't going to let us do that so we raised money for the animal shelter instead -- we didn't get bullied by any random kids though.


	3. First Grade and the Barbie Incident

In the first grade, the kids at Bonneville Elementary School were allowed to pick their own buddies. When Mr. Hugh announced this to their class at orientation, Nini Salazar-Roberts felt anxiety crash over her in waves. She knew that there was only one person she would want as a buddy, but what if he didn’t want her for a buddy this year? 

In July, Ricky had started trying sports and he said he really liked them. He got to play them with Big Red and the other boys that they went to school with, and even though Nini hated sharing him, she was happy that he was happy. Nini had started taking ballet and singing lessons over the summer too and she wished that he would come with her, but he said he couldn’t. Nini hated to admit it, but she knew that her best friend was right, he would get picked on if he did dance with her.

Nini feels her mom’s hand squeeze hers, she looks up to see her Mama C giving her a slightly worried smile. Nini doesn’t want her parents to worry, she knows that they both worry about how shy she can be. So she gives her mom a smile to prove that she’s okay and then looks back to the front of the room while her new teacher continues to talk about what their school year will be like. This year they’ll be in school for full days, instead of the half days that they had in kindergarten. They’ll each have their own lockers for their book bags -- lockers that are open in pairs, so they’ll be assigned to buddies. They’re going to hatch butterflies and chicks. They’ll have a field trip in the spring. And there’ll be class parties for the holidays. 

Nini smiles, she loves knowing what to expect. There's something so exciting about seeing all the things that they would do that year and knowing that she’ll get to do all of it. She loves school. As soon as the teacher stops talking, Nini hears a familiar voice calling her name, and before she can even turn around in her seat the arms of her best friend wrap around shoulders to hug her from behind. Nini squeals in surprise. “Nini!” Ricky practically yells in her ear.

“Ricky, I am right here you don’t have to shout,” she tells him, laughing. He rocks her back and forth, still not loosening his grip on her. Nini overhears their mothers' exchange, “You should have seen Nini, she couldn’t stop fidgeting ‘Where’s Ricky? Mom, where’s Ricky?’ every five seconds,” Mama C jokes with Miss Lynne. 

“Mom!” Nini whines at her mother, feeling her cheeks warm with embarrassment. Ricky lets her go so that she can finally stand up like the rest of them, but he grins at her, “Aww, Nini, you missed me?” Ricky says. At the same time Miss Lynne says, “Well, sorry, we were late. I had work and Mike couldn’t get out early today like we had planned, so we just snuck in at the back.” Nini noticed that the grown-ups looked like they were feeling things that they weren’t saying, but she couldn’t figure out what. 

“Well, if you run into that problem again just let us know, we’re always happy to have Ricky around. Nini talks about him enough, I’m half shocked sometimes that she hasn’t accidentally summoned him out of thin air-” “MOM!” Nini wishes that she could disappear. Both moms laugh, but Ricky looks upset. 

“You guys shouldn’t make Nini feel bad like that,” he says. Ricky never fails to stand up for her, it’s one of the things about him that Nini likes best. Both of their moms stop laughing and give each other an odd look instead. Nini wishes she could figure out what grown-ups were thinking all the time. She’s shaken out of her thoughts by Ricky grabbing her by both shoulders. “Oh my gosh, Nini!” he exclaims. 

“Oh my gosh, Ricky!” she says back. “What?”

“You have to be my buddy this year! Please say you’ll be my buddy? I don’t know how to sit through a day in school without you. Remember when you got strep throat last year and you were gone for a whole week and I had to sit at our table without you and play with Connor at recess! Wait. Did I ever tell you that I played with Connor while you were gone? Cause I did and he’s the worst!-” 

“Ricky!” Nini finally cuts off his stream of words. “You can’t say things like that, remember?” Nini lowers her voice and leans closer to say, “Even if it is true.” They both giggle, Ricky always says that he’s glad Nini’s only funny around him cause if everybody knew how funny she is they’d all want to be her friend. “But yes, of course, I’ll be your buddy again this year.” Nini looks up at her mom while Ricky beams at her. Right now Mama C’s face is easy to read, it says to Nini, ‘See? You didn’t need to worry about if Ricky would want to be your buddy or not!’. 

Lynne suggests to both of the kids that they go tell their teacher that they want to buddies this year and Ricky grabs her hand saying, “Mine!” Which makes Nini laugh, but while they head across the room Nini can’t help but see that their moms are having an important type talk. 

\--

In the car, Nini is buckled into her booster seat and Mama C is driving them to get fast food for dinner. She had said that ‘orientation sounded like a chicken-nuggets-for-dinner kind of event’ and Nini couldn’t agree more. But Nini can’t stop thinking about the way her mom and Miss Lynne were talking earlier. “Mama?” she finally says. 

“Yes, baby?” her mom says.

“Why did Ricky’s mom seem… um, I don’t know. She seemed kind of sad. Or maybe she was mad. Do you think I maybe made her mad?” Nini tries to think back over the evening to figure out a way that she could have made Miss Lynne angry. 

“No, no baby girl. Ricky’s mom isn’t mad. Um, it’s a little complicated.” Nini didn’t say anything, usually, if she stayed quiet long enough her mom would eventually keep talking. “So, Ricky’s mom thinks he’s got a little too much energy. She wants to take him to a doctor to see about getting him some medicine to help him calm down, but Ricky’s daddy doesn’t really agree, so they’re trying to figure out what to do.” 

Nini thought about her mom’s words for a minute, "Too much energy how?” She finally asks. Nini loves all of Ricky’s energy. He’s always happy and bouncy and smiley. It makes her feel happy too. 

“Um. Well, I guess too much energy to focus and calm down. She’s worried that he’s gonna have trouble learning in school if he doesn’t learn how to calm down.” Nini feels even more confused by this. 

“But I love Ricky's energy. Aren’t mommy’s suppose to love their babies no matter what?” She asks. 

“Oh, no, sweetie, Lynne loves Ricky so so much! She doesn’t want to change him, she just wants what’s going to be best for him. Ricky’s dad does too, they just can’t quite figure out the best thing to do for him,” her mom says. Nini feels kind of angry, the answer seems pretty obvious to her; just ask Ricky what he wants. But Mama C pulls into the drive-thru before Nini can say anything else about it and then the smell of french fries distracts Nini the whole way home. 

But after her bath, and a bedtime story, and when she’s all tucked in Nini remembers again. Mama D is with her now, so she figures maybe she’ll know something better to say. “I like Ricky so much, just the way he is. I hope his mommy knows that he’s special. Why don’t grown-ups ever ask kids what we think about things?” 

Mama D seems very confused by Nini’s comments and says something about how sweet it is that she cares so much about her friend. Nini feels like she’s never gonna get an answer from anybody. Ricky is her best friend, she should know what’s happening. 

\--

Nini mostly forgets about the orientation day, until one day in October when Ricky comes over to her house. The two of them are playing with her Barbies. They’re having a hair salon day. Nini is in charge of washing their hair in the kitchen sink and then Ricky is drying them, then they’ll both style the doll's hair. One of her dolls, Wendy - with long brown hair, like the character from Peter Pan, gets a little too wet. Nini is upset because she knows she should have been more careful, but now her doll and all of the doll’s clothes are completely soaked. 

Ricky hates seeing her upset and wants to fix it. “What if we put her in the microwave to dry for a minute?” he suggests. Nini’s not sure if it’ll work.

“The microwave cooks things, it doesn’t dry them. If anything, we should use the drier, but I don’t know how to use it and I’m not really supposed to touch it.” Nini sniffles, her moms are always telling her that it’s okay to feel big things, but she has to learn how to let go of those big feelings too, or else she’ll get overwhelmed. So she shuts her eyes and tries to imagine that her frustration is a gigantic boulder and she hits it over and over with a pick until it starts to break apart. And then she hears the microwave door open and slams shut, Ricky presses some buttons, and the light inside comes on before the words ‘Ricky wait’ can even come out of her mouth. 

“No, Ricky! Turn it off!” She shouts, running across the kitchen. Ricky turns to look at her, I’m just gonna dry her, you’ll see. But looking back at the microwave, what Nini actually sees is fire! “Ricky! Get away from the microwave look! Mom!” Nini feels panic rising in her as she runs as far from the flames as she can without leaving the room. She sees Ricky pressing buttons, but he barely knows how to read so it’s not doing a lot of good trying to shut it off. “Ricky forget about the stupid Barbie, get away from the fire!” She screams, finally running across the room to yank him off the countertop. 

“No, no! Nini, I can fix this,” he fights back against her as she tugs him across the room. Finally, both of her moms come bursting into the room, they both scream, Mama C runs to the back door, opening it wide, while Mama D unplugs the microwave and picks it up, carrying it as far away from her body as she can and then throwing it out the back door onto the grass. Nini and Ricky are still in a corner at the far end of the kitchen, she’s still got his arm in a death grip and he’s crying saying “Sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m sorry, Nini I’m really sorry,” over and over again. 

Finally, Nini throws her arms around him, burying her face in his neck. “Stop saying your sorry, Ricky! Just never scare me like that again! You could have died!” 

Obviously, both of their parents have a lot of questions about what exactly happened that lead to, as Mr. Bowen put it, “a Barbie getting barbequed”. Which made both the kids laugh, but not any of the other adults. Both Ricky and Nini talk over each other, holding hands the entire time, and bending the truth to try and take the blame because they don’t want each other to get in trouble for the accident. After about thirty minutes of questioning, they all seemed a little fed up with the kids. Finally, Mama D says, “You both promise not to do anything like this again?” They both nod their heads. “And neither of you crazies are gonna touch a microwave again until at least fifth grade?” Both of them nod again. Mama D turns to the other parents, “Good enough for me,” she says. 

The Bowens are ready to take Ricky home and never let him come back after the incident, but obviously, it's too late to rewind the clock on this friendship. Nini doesn’t know why exactly, but she really doesn’t want to let Ricky go. At the door, their parents stand speaking softly so that the kids can’t hear but Nini knows something is happening, and she's pretty sure it's Ricky who is about to get in trouble. She pulls him into a tight hug, “Richard Bowen, you are my best friend forever and ever, no matter what.” 

Nini feels him relax into her hug. Mama C always said even though Ricky was outgoing and a little crazy, he was really a sensitive kid, and Nini loved that about him. She just wanted to make sure that he was okay.

\--

A few weeks later Nini sees Ricky walk into their classroom, but it’s not Ricky. It’s like there’s a sloth going around wearing a Ricky suit and saying that he’s Ricky. He sits beside Nini and she immediately knows something’s really not alright. She reaches out to hold his hand and he pulls away from her, then looks at his own hand like he doesn’t know why he did it. “Ricky?” she whispers, “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”

“My mommy gave me a medicine and they said I might feel weird for a while,” he says, sounding defeated. “It’s supposed to help me calm down and listen better.”

Nini realizes that she remembers those words somehow. “Is this because of my Barbie doll?” she asks, tears already in her eyes. 

“I don’t know,” he says without even looking at her. “I don’t know why I have to take it, but mommy says so.” Ricky lays his head down on his desk, and Nini’s heart breaks for him. She knows that he pulled away from holding her hand, but when she doesn’t feel good her mommys usually rub her head, and Ricky always does her hair when it gets messy. His hair might not be messy, but life feels messy to her right now. So, hesitantly, she reaches out to run her fingers through his curly hair, she hears him sigh and it sounds like a good thing, so she thinks maybe she did something right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of Ricky's comments in the show about their childhood just screamed chaotic ADHD behavior to me and I wanted to explore some of the earlier signs of the Bowen's marital problems. But I want to be really clear, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING MEDICATED FOR ADHD. For some people, it is life-saving and for others, it is a painful and numbing experience, this plot exists because I want to portray the issue complexly. As a person who has struggled with anxiety and ADHD and is medicated for both, I just want to see more representation of the issue in writing.


End file.
